On Friday, December 1, over 600 members of the Massachusetts labor-management relations community gathered to honor four exemplary leaders at the 51st annual Cushing-Gavin Awards. Among them, The Labor Guild honored Dean David Weil for his dedication to building just workplaces in this Commonwealth and beyond.
The Cushing-Gavin Awards are presented annually in four categories: labor, management, attorney, and auxiliary. Weil, Former Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, received the Father Edward F. Boyle, S.J. (Auxiliary) Award “for his impact on national labor law and his prolific writing and teaching at the intersection of labor and legal studies.”
“This is a meaningful award to me because of the people who have received this honor in the past,” says Weil. “They’re people who I have deep respect for, who had impact on the lives of working people by bringing workers, labor, and management together to think about how to resolve and improve workplace conditions. My mentor, John Dunlop, was a recipient of this award as well as many other important people in the academic community and the community of mediators.”
The Boyle award is named for Father Edward F. Boyle, S.J., who served as chaplain and executive director of the Labor Guild for 37 years and was known for the care, selflessness, and passion he brought to his work.
“I knew Father Boyle when I was a young academic, and it’s moving to me to receive an award named after him and his legacy,” says Weil.
The Labor Guild, an agency of the archdiocese of Boston, is a membership-based organization that trains people in collective bargaining and labor relations. The organization quotes Father Boyle having once said, “Numbers alone cannot be the accurate gauge of what this event represents to the labor-management community. That can only be registered in the hearts and minds of those attending, and the fresh commitments and deepened sensitivities nurtured by this event.”
Other Cushing-Gavin honorees of the evening included Cynthia Rodrigues, president of the Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Central Labor Council, Stephen Affanato, executive vice president of the New England Mechanical Contractors Association, and Mark Batten, Esq., partner at the law firm Proskauer.